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- Celtic UEFA Champions League Preview & Koni De Winter Scout Report At AC Milan 2025/2026
Celtic UEFA Champions League Preview & Koni De Winter Scout Report At AC Milan 2025/2026
Today, we have a tactical analysis article previewing Celtic's UCL campaign and a scout report on new AC Milan centre-back signing Koni De Winter.
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Celtic begin their UEFA Champions League campaign this week in the play-off round against Kazakhstan Premier League champions Kairat Almaty.
The Hoops will be hoping to at least match their successful run in the competition last season, which saw them progress from the group stage to face Bayern Munich in the knockout phase.
Last term, it took a 94th-minute goal in the Allianz Arena for the German giants to see off the impressive Scottish Premiership Champions.
Throughout their 10 games in last season’s competition, Celtic conceded 17 goals, with only two of the 25 teams that qualified from the group stage conceding more.
However, 11 of those goals came in two games away from home against Borussia Dortmund (7-1) and Aston Villa (4-2).
Following their hammering in Dortmund, Celtic kept three clean sheets in their six remaining group stage matches against Atalanta, Dinamo Zagreb, and BSC Young Boys.
Celtic also scored in all but two of their matches throughout the competition, only failing to find the net away to Atalanta and Dinamo, and tallied a total of 15 goals.
This tactical analysis will analyse Brendan Rodgers‘ tactics, with particular focus on Celtic’s out-of-possession shape in the attacking, middle, and defensive zones of the pitch.
Following Malik Thiaw‘s move from AC Milan to Newcastle United for a considerable fee that reaches €40m, Milan took almost no time in finalising their deal with a very promising defender to replace Thiaw and become an important player in I Rossoneri‘s defensive line.
They reached an agreement with Genoa to buy their defender Koni De Winter for up to €20m.
The extra €20m Milan still have from the Thiaw sale would most probably be invested in further signings, especially an additional defender or striker, given that Milan still lack a defender in their squad.
This is especially true if they plan to rely on a back-three formation throughout the season.
According to Massimiliano Allegri’s pre-season friendlies, Milan are expected to continue playing according to that same back-three defensive organisation, with possible changes in midfield and attack.
Therefore, having an additional defender within the squad would be necessary.
Furthermore, numerous critics argued that Milan could have gone for the likes of Fiorentina’s Pietro Comuzzo or Giovanni Leoni, who had joined Liverpool.
It was also suggested that both players might be better-suited for Milan than De Winter.
However, ironically enough, De Winter can become even more valuable than the two suggested players.
De Winter has proven himself at Genoa and Empoli and has gained a lot of experience in Serie A already, as opposed to the two players who have played less in Serie A and are less experienced.
In fact, De Winter is certainly not the best defender in the world at the moment.
However, his Serie A record already favours him over many other choices, given that he has been good enough, especially last season with Genoa, playing regularly and being defensively solid on most occasions.
In this player analysis and scout report on the newly signed De Winter, we will examine his profile thoroughly, exploring his strengths and weaknesses, and identifying how Allegri can make him a reliable defender within Milan’s back-three system.
The analysis will, therefore, illuminate his defensive actions and goalscoring attributes, focusing on his potential positions and roles at Milan.
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